In a deal involving a company owned by Jared Kushner, a company that is basically just the Saudis, and $20B of debt.
I gave up on EA a long time back, and them not making Alice: Asylum was the final nail in their coffin.
It's official: EA is going private.
Submitted 1 month ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://bsky.app/profile/jasonschreier.bsky.social/post/3lzxzk5aifs2w
Comments
flemtone@lemmy.world 1 month ago
RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The idea of playing a new Mass Effect owned by Jared Kushner.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Couldn’t happen to a nicer company
vga@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Is this better or worse than being a public company?
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
This specific instance? Worse.
It’s being bought by blood money (Kushner’s $2billion investment/bribe to hush up the US government about the brutal murder of a US resident journalist at the hands of the Saudis).
SippyCup@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Public companies have a hard wired compulsion to increase value for shareholders. Every single decision is made with profit in mind. In the best cases you get milquetoast, inoffensive material everyone can enjoy. Ultimately, this leads to a relentless and aggressive pursuit of endless growth at any cost.
Private companies can take a loss here and there, they don’t have to report a bad quarter and so they can plan ahead. Which allows them to do two, non explains things. That approach allows them to build a robust and loyal consumer base which is quite valuable. So they’ll sell it off again and let the public companies milk them dry. They can also get up to some horrendously evil shit behind closed doors in a foreign country where the laws only apply to people who aren’t the ruling family and never have to answer for it. Though that kind of thing is usually reserved for like, chemical manufacturers and labor intensive luxury food markets. It may be that the Saudis are just diversifying and want a propaganda mouthpiece. Or one of the royals REALLY likes FIFA.
Hard to say.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Depends. This is a leveraged buyout and there are countless examples of other companies bought like this and they don’t last long.
They take on massive debt to buy it. Then they shift that debt to the company they bought and away from the individuals. Then that company is crippled paying down interest so they can’t innovate (not that EA did), then they’ll have to cut costs and the product will diminish. Likely pay out billions in dividends to the buyers can make profit and in 5-10 years EA will go bust or get sold again.
The banks will be left holding the bag, but probably covered their loses by that time so can write off the rest of the debt.
itztalal@lemmings.world 1 month ago
Depends on your perspective.
This is bad from a business, creativity, and human rights standpoint.
However, it’s good that a shitty company like EA with predatory products is going to be even more exploitative and predatory from here on out.
I enjoy watching the useful idiots get taken for a ride.
PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Haven’t bought an EA game in over a decade. Don’t intend to change that anytime soon.
CrazyFrog97@discuss.online 1 month ago
Yes.
jj4211@lemmy.world 1 month ago
If it’s gone public, then generally going private is a bad thing. It’s usually some investors that are going to do something bad with the company.
A company that starts and stays private may be all the better for it (but that’s hardly assured either). If they are a success and didn’t bring a lot of investors, then it generally means they actually care about the work intrinsically.
13igTyme@piefed.social 1 month ago
Weird how everyone is mad or upset about EA going out of business. I look at this as a positive. EA makes 90% shit games and 10% games that are unique or could be good that I refuse to buy on the grounds that it is still owned by EA.
If the few decent IPs get sold off to a different company I might actually buy it as long as it’s not one of the other mega shit companies. At least now there’s a chance.
Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
You can bid the chance of having (good) Mass Effect games good bye.
sbbq@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Pretty sure that ship sailed like 10 years ago.
TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
I liked Andromeda.
TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
This is apparently a game made by some of the old guard at BioWare.
Reminds me a bit of Andromeda mixed with ME1. Less focus on being part of a military organization from what I see.
taiyang@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I was thinking about this deal and… I guess it makes sense the Saudis want in on the gaming industry. I recall a long while ago an old article about the industry (probably second hand via Polygon) that noted just how much Saudis whale on mobile and loot box games. It was so disproportionate, their nobility was like 2% of a mobile title’s revenue… literally just a few big families.
So my thinking is, EA, being the kind of shitty company it is, is actually probably pretty popular among Saudi nobility. That and FIFA, of course — imagine pay to win when you have infinite money.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
I’m more cynical than that, I think it’s that Kushner and the Saudis have both identified gamers as a group susceptible to be influenced by auth-right messaging, and they want a piece of that.
ceiphas@feddit.org 1 month ago
They lost the FIFA games…
DacoTaco@lemmy.world 1 month ago
“Lost” They lost the fifa name, but fc is basically the same, and it still has all the players and club’s in it soooo… Its just a name change sadly
NoodlePoint@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Makes me think why Houthis and the Iranians hate them.
MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social 1 month ago
So THAT’S why they allowed Battlefield 6 to be so good. Had to pump up those player interest numbers.
obinice@lemmy.world 1 month ago
R.I.P Mass Effect.
tatann@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s resting since 2012, not peacefully though :/
They first zombified it in 2017 and now they’re poking its corpse every few years on the 7th of november
someguy3@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Wow did not see this coming. Saudi Arabia is desperate to diversify so from that angle it makes sense. Kushner wants in lol. That’s a big buyout though. Well, things are going to get weird.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So basically EA got tired of watching Ubisoft and Nintendo fight over who is worse and dropped a nuke.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Hopefully it’s a leveraged buyout and this is the death of EA.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It is a leveraged buyout.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Yup I added an edit. LBOs should be illegal man. Just search how many companies have been bought like this and then driven out of business.
NoodlePoint@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Sail the high seas.
Master@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Meme:
Ea: was I a good game company.
Grim Reaper: No!
ghosthacked@lemmy.wtf 1 month ago
For a preview of what happens, look at the embracer buyouts. This is essentially a funeral
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
Yup. Or Toys R Us, or Debenhams (UK), or any other number of LBOs which led to the death of the company.
HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Wait, can I still play Skate or Die! on my Commodore 64?
But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 1 month ago
What difference does this make honestly? They’re already a shit company, what do I care who owns them?
Tronn4@lemmy.world 1 month ago
EA, Its not in the game
mintiefresh@piefed.social 1 month ago
Damn, it really happened. Crazy.
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So romance options…
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 1 month ago
HAH! the sims is about to get nuked
Eyck_of_denesle@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
They will be fine. Y’all need to choose a side. MBS himself had to step in to make sure this deal happened when officials stooped it as it was investing in Israeli companies too. He doesn’t give af about shariah.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
It’ll be interesting seeing how the worst games company manages to find a way to become even worse.
Senf@feddit.org 1 month ago
EA has not been able to send the Auth Codes 2-factor to my e-mail with my own domain for ages.
The support (probably AI) sends me a link to a support article about 2-factor authorisation every time. EXACTLY THE ARTICLE WHERE YOU HAVE TO SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN TO CONTACT SUPPORT.
plsnerf7@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Right before bf6… well o7
Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Had an EA Play so I could play NHL and FIFA, and the occasional ME Trilogy replay. Canceled it the moment the news broke about Kushner and the Saudis. Had paid for the year and was willing to sacrifice the final five months in the name of morality. But luckily they refunded me the difference.
vane@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Take Two is next.
PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Why is an anti-Semitic meme the picture for this post? Did a Jewish CEO buy the company?
Piwix@lemmy.today 1 month ago
That’s the profile picture for the reporter’s bluesky post that this links to.
PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Saw that. I thought the article poster was being racist.
Jax@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Dude what?
PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nevermind it’s the reporters selfie. I thought this was a racist joke against EA.
VerseAndVermin@lemmy.world 1 month ago
How much couch money do I need to acquire Westwood’s NoX out of this?
damon@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I wonder if there’s any entities that they do partnerships with that have provisions in their contracts against this, curious if the sports leagues do. They’re notoriously protective of their IPa and rights
TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
Rest in peace Mass Effect.
Old BioWare did splinter into Archetype and are working on “Exodus.” I am not yet sold, but looks more like a harder sci-fi, since traveling at near FTL is actually one way time travel.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Hard, relatavistic sci fi can still get super weird, see: www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48545a0f6352a
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Or Gundam.